barely any options being shown within blender
The user interface of Blender was updated in the 2.80 version. Many tutorials are using an older version of Blender which looks a bit different. However the features are still there in Blender 2.8x*, just in slightly different places or on a different shortcut. I'd recommend to watch the Blender Fundamentals 2.8 for an introduction to the new user interface and Blender in general.

* There are some exceptions, e.g. the Blender Internal render engine has been replaced with Eevee and the Blender Game Engine has been removed. 

The options you're looking for in the sidebar are located in the View tab. There you'll find the properties for the Clip Start, End and 3D Cursor.



Meshes can be created either through the Add menu or by using Shift+A